Preliminary Task

Here is the video of our preliminary task completed.
When filming it was important we kept our shots continuous and Megan followed through with her moments. This really helped when it came to editing as it allowed the clips to come together smoothly and prevented the scene looking jerky or unnatural. Areas that we struggled with was mostly timing and location. We filmed in chronological order and we managed to complete the first half in just a few takes, however when we moved to the other side of the door our location was compromised. Seeing as it the first part went so well we decided to wait until the location was clear and then continue filming rather that restarting somewhere new, looking back I feel this was a good decision. When filming in the future I will always make sure that my chosen location will be clear for a sufficient amount of time to avoid something like this happening again.
The actors with in the scene also made some mistake which caused laughted, this was totally acceptable seeing as it was our first time but we soon began eating in to the time that we had to film. We were happy how the match on action shot turned out although the last shot could have been improved by the framing being better and not being as obstructed. I would say this wasted time caused the messy ending which if had the chance we would redo.
This is a good lesson learnt as when it comes to our final product we do not want any areas of it to come across messy or un-neat.

Preliminary Task - Planning

For our preliminary task we were asked to create a short scene. The scene had to include someone walking through a door with a match on action shot as well as a shot reverse shot with dialogue. Before we could she our scene it was important that we have storyboards so we coukdkeep track of what shots we needed to film. Here is a picture of our storyboards. After the storyboard had been completed we were then able to start filming.

 

Preliminary Task - Brief

Below is the brief for my preliminary task.


Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.


From this I know that continuity plays the largest role, I must make sure that the match-on-action shot is clean and fluid and that the 180 - degree rule is met.

I must complete these criteria within the task otherwise the brief will not be met.

Having this brief is good practice as I will have to follow a brief when it comes to producing my final product.

Technical Sound

In my previous post I spoke about sound as a whole and the affects it has and audiences emotions, but here I am going to touch on sound from a technical aspect.
With in media there is diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Diegetic sound refers to the sound that the viewer can see the source of, for example a phone ringing or actors talking. Non-diegetic sound is the term used to describe the sound that has been added in post production. The two are combine to create the most appropriate sound for the scene.
Certain technical sound techniques can be used to add to the dynamic of a scene such as asynchronous sound. This type of sound is where the audio is deliberately matched out of sync with the visual, it can help to create the feeling of chaos and confusion. Asynchronous sound can also be used to describe unfitting music, for example a violent fight paced with calming classical music.
Voice overs are often used within media, a voice over is when the audience is receiving information which is usually given from the main character. They are a good way to fill in holes of the story with out breaking continuity.
Sound motifs are sound that is played for a particular character. It can be used to help enforce the presence of a character, sound motifs can be subtle which helps create a familiar feeling with the audience or they can be more obvious for example a sinister sound when the 'bad guy' appears.

Some other technical aspects of sound include ambient sound, this is sounds that the audience hear from the back ground such as traffic from the city or birds tweeting. Sound bridges are also used, this is where sound continues over cuts of editing. This may be a voice over or music on the radio in the characters homes.



Here is an example of a voice over from 'American Psycho'. Having the introduction to Bateman's life style from the character allows the audience to become immersed in and understand more about him, if the scene did not have the voice over the audience wouldn't understand Batemen's mind when entering the rest of the film which could effect how he is persevered early on.

Having a better knowledge of technical sound will benefit me when it comes to produce my final piece.

Sound

Whilst becoming more familiar with film language I have come to learn that sound plays a very important role in any media production. Sound is 50% of the over all product and is necessary when it comes to telling the story and holding the audience. With out sound images can become boring and not very stimulating to watch therefore causing the the audience to lose interest. Sound is able to make a film alluring and is able to draw you just as much as the visuals. Personally the reason why I love my favourite films so much is part to do with the soundtrack, certain soundtracks also become iconic with in the world of film such as 'American Beauty'. With out sound, it becomes difficult to immerser the audience in the piece that they are being presented.

Sound is important in every genre but it can be more crucial in some that others, for example films from the horror genre rely massively on the use of sound and sound effect to create that creepy or frightening aspect of a scene. Other emotions that sound can influence are ones of sadness, sad moments where the characters are showing high emotion are often accompanied by sorrowful music which helps transfer the sadness to the audience. However some more shocking scenes are sometimes followed by silence which creates a different impact. A example of sad music playing during a scene is from doctor who.

Knowing more about sound will help me in future productions as I will be able to choose the most appropriate soundtrack that compliments my piece in the best way.

Scene Recreation Task

As a team we were set the task of recreating a short clip from a film of our choice. We chose the first minute of the song scream in High School Musical 3, we chose this clip as it had a variety of different shots, movements and angles such as panning and low angle shots. The clip was also very simple and would not be to difficult for us to have a go at recreating, here is a video of the clip.

Before we could could begin filming we had to decide on appropriate locations for the clip, we had to story board so we new what shots we were aiming for, how long they would take and how many shots we were going to end up with. We also needed to think about any props and how much time we had to film in. After filming we then started to think about editing and and effects we wanted to add. Here is the final out come.

We tried to imitate key parts of the scene as close as possible.